testimony

I mentioned yesterday that "testimony" had something to do with the closing of our latest chapter in The Case for Christ. Habermas has been asked about the importance of the Resurrection, and he continues his answer by talking about his wife’s slow death from stomach cancer.

"…It was an awful time. This was the worst thing that couldpossibly happen." He turned and looked straight at me. "But doyou know what was amazing? My students would call me–not just onebut several of them–and say, ‘At a time like this, aren’t youglad about the Resurrection?’ As sober as those circumstanceswere, I had to smile for two reasons. First, my students weretrying to cheer me up with my own teaching. And second, itworked.

…I still worried; I still wondered what I’d do raisingfour kids alone. But there wasn’t a time when that truth didn’tcomfort me.Losing my wife was the most painful experience I’ve ever had toface, but if the Resurrection could get me through that, it canget me through anything.Now, on to the LAST chapter (almost–the summary chapter will be short)! This one is about Circumstantial Evidence, which Lee Strobel shows from his experience as a crime reporter, can make an airtight case; in fact, it can be even better than eyewitness evidence, which is subject to faded memories, prejudices, etc. So he begins to investigate whether or not there is indirect evidence to back up the Resurrection. The thirteenth interview is with J.P. Moreland, Ph.D.

Strobel goes through all the usual qualifications–the degrees, the reems of articles & books, etc. (a strong background in science, as well as theology… How ’bout "Love Your God with All Your Mind"!) But I love the personal descriptions that he always includes, of his interviewees. For this one, he talks about how excited Moreland is…

"I love this stuff," he exclaimed during one brief break–the onlytime during our conversation when he stated the obvious.Moreland’s highly organized mind works so systematically, sologically, that he seems to effortlessly construct his case incomplete sentences and whole paragraphs, without wasted words orextraneous thoughts, ready for proofreading and printing.